The Best PlayStation Game Every Year 1994 - 2024
10. 2015 - Bloodborne
Since the explosion of the original Dark Souls, everybody has wanted a Soulslike for themselves.
PlayStation, bully for them, might’ve gotten perhaps the most beloved title from both the genre and its monarch FromSoftware themselves in 2015 with Bloodborne.
Swapping the more defensive play of Dark Souls for something more offensive made Bloodborne feel familiar yet totally different. Weapons now had multiple forms and functions, players were rewarded for counter-attacking with health boosts, and the formula therefore shifted to being a game less about timing your escape and more about keeping on the pressure.
Intricate design permeated Bloodborne, from its graphics down to the worldbuilding in item descriptions. More than any other FromSoft game to this point, Bloodborne filled players with the desire to experience and know everything - wield every weapon, slay every beast, find every secret and try to unravel its vague - but not obtuse - story.
What made this remarkable was that Yarnham and its twisted inhabitants should’ve screamed at players to stay away: the bleak story, the grotesque monsters and the oppressive Gothic world… and yet not only is Bloodborne beloved, people have been asking for more of it ever since release.
No matter what FromSoftware continue to develop, nothing will compare to Bloodborne’s suffocating level of atmosphere. Bloodborne created a world more complete in one entry than most games strive for in an entire franchise.